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Legendary Pictures
| owner = | divisions = | subsid = | homepage = }} Legendary Pictures, Inc. (also referred to as Legendary Entertainment) is an American film production company, whose parent company is based in Burbank, California and was founded by Thomas Tull in 2000. In 2005 the company concluded a 40-picture agreement to co-produce and co-finance with Warner Bros. History Thomas Tull founded Legendary Entertainment after raising $500 million from private equity firms. It was one of the first companies of its kind to pair major motion picture production with major Wall Street private equity and hedge fund investors, including ABRY Partners, AIG Direct Investments, Bank of America Capital Investors, Columbia Capital, Falcon Investment Advisors, and M/C Venture Partners. The company was incorporated in California in 2000 and in 2005 it signed a seven-year agreement with Warner Bros. to co-produce and co-finance 40 films over seven years. In 2010 Tull and two other investors, Fidelity Investments and Fortress Investment Group, bought all the shares of the original investors. Following the transaction, Tull became the largest shareholder, thus enabling him to more easily direct the company's operations. By 2011 the company was reported to have been valued at more than $1 billion. In September 2011, Chief Creative Officer Jon Jashni was appointed to the new position of President. Divisions and ventures In addition to producing American feature films, Legendary Entertainment has announced various other business endeavors, which are currently in the early stages of development. In 2009, the company announced the establishment of a digital division, to be headed by Kathy Vrabeck, that would primarily focus on game development, a move which surprised many industry analysts because of the film industry's previous disengagement with the video game industry. The goal of the division was reoriented in 2012 with the acquisition of Nerdist Industries, a pop culture blog with a synonymous podcast. Nerdsit founder Chris Hardwick announced that he and his partner Peter Levin (founder of GeekChicDaily) would still have complete control editorial autonomy and that they would become the new presidents of the digital division, with Levin heading digital strategy and he digital content. In 2010, the company announced the launch of a comic book division called Legendary Comics under the direction of editor-in-chief Bob Schreck. The first graphic novel published by the company was ''Holy Terror'' by Frank Miller, which was released in 2011. In 2011, the company announced the creation of Legendary Television to focus on developing television productions. The division will be headed by Jeremy Elice and a co-financing contract with Warner Bros. Television was reported to be under consideration. In 2011, the company also announced the formation of Legendary East, a joint venture film production company based in Hong Kong. Half of the company will be owned by the shell corporation Paul Y. Engineering Group (which will be partially owned by Kelvin Wu, who will be Legendary East's CEO), 40% will be owned by Legendary Entertainment, and 10% will be owned by the Chinese film distributor Huayi Brothers International. Starting in 2013 Legendary East is slated to produce one to two globally marketed English-language films per year and could finance a quarter of the production of an additional two films per year. Because the company will be based in China, it will be able to circumvent the quota on theatrically released foreign films. The company hoped to raise US$220.5 million through the sale of stock of Paul Y. Engineering Group on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by the end of 2011. However, because financing did not meet the targeted goal, Legendary East is planning to continue its efforts to secure financing in 2012. The first film announced by the company is The Great Wall. Filmography Legendary Entertainment has co-produced 24 feature films. In addition, the company is also in the process of producing an additional five films and is developing various other projects. Of the 24 feature films produced, 23 have had theatrical releases and one has had a direct-to-video release. All films that were theatrically released were distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures (except for Watchmen which was distributed by both Warner Bros. Pictures and Paramount Pictures) and the direct-to-video film was distributed by Warner Premiere. Note that in all cases the distributor or distributors are also co-producers. Also, in all cases the film listed is a work of Legendary Pictures, unless the film's name is followed by a subscript "E", indicating that Legendary East is the production company. The box office column reflects the worldwide gross for the theatrical release of the film in United States dollars. Released In production In development Bibliography Legendary Comics has published one graphic novel. An additional seven are in development. Released * Holy Terror (September 2011, story and art by Frank Miller, cover colors by Dave Stewart, ISBN 978-1937278007) In development * The Majestic Files (2013, story by J. Michael Straczynski, pencils by Geoff Shaw, inks by Matt Banning) *''One Trick Rip-Off'' (December 2012, Paul Pope, ISBN 978-1937278045) * PulpHope: Redux (December 2012, Paul Pope, ISBN 978-1937278038) * Shadow Walk (story by Mark Waid, penciling by Shane Davis, inks by Mark Morales) *''The Tower Chronicles'' (story by Matt Wagner, pencils by Simon Bisley) **''The Tower Chronicles: GeistHawk, Volume One'' (September 2012, inks by Rodney Ramos, colors by Ryan Brown, letters by Sean Konot, cover pencils by Jim Lee, cover inks by Scott Williams, cover colors by Alex Sinclair, ISBN 978-1937278021) **''The Tower Chronicles: GeistHawk, Volumes Two to Four'' **''The Tower Chronicles: GrimStalker, Volumes One to Four'' **''The Tower Chronicles: WraithQuest, Volumes One to Four'' References External links * * Category:Companies based in California Category:Film production companies of the United States Category:Private equity portfolio companies